The LORD is Shalom

Shalom Inspiration: Gideon builds an altar to the LORD and calls it, “The LORD is Shalom.”
By Richard Romero

Judges 6

Gideon was fearful, but discovered that “God Is Shalom” he therefore built an altar to God with that very name.

He had good reason to be afraid. The Israelites were under severe oppression from the Midianites who invaded their country and destroyed their land. The Israelites hide themselves because they were afraid of getting hurt or killed. Gideon was probably stressed out and afraid as well. He was even threshing wheat in a wine-press, something that was kind of weird, odd and disorienting?

The angel of God came and sat down under an oak tree where Gideon was threshing the wheat and said to him, “God is with you, mighty warrior” This must have been confusing to Gideon because if the Lord was with Israel, “why has all this happened” to them?

Don’t we feel the same way many times? “Where is God?” We ask. “If God is with me why is this happening to me?” And yet, God does not see what we see, God sees what we can do if we stick to God. Even when we are doing weird or random stuff such as threshing wheat in a wine-press, God is with us. God understands our fear.

The angel tells Gideon that he is the one whom God was sending to save the people of Israel. This probably confused Gideon even further because in his own eyes he was just an insignificant individual. He was scared and perplexed. It is then that he hears those calming words, “Shalom! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”

Don’t we thirst for those words? “Shalom, don’t be afraid.” It is as if God was saying “Kid, don’t worry, I got this.” Life can be very scary at times but we have a God who has got our back.

The text tells us that the angel of God came and sat down under an oak tree where Gideon was. Maybe the next time that you see a Christmas tree you remember that the angel of God came under a tree. And maybe you can also remember the angel’s words; but this time maybe you can imagine God saying these words to you. “Shalom, Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”

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